Why people don't test development distributions [LWN.net]

Why people don't test development distributions

Posted Jul 7, 2009 19:32 UTC (Tue) by Max.Hyre (subscriber, #1054)
In reply to: Why people don't test development distributions by MathFox
Parent article: Why people don't test development distributions

It makes a big difference to actually enforce testability. You get your nose rubbed in how much better things work.

In one wonderful (in the sense of getting to follow all those ``best practices'' you read about in books) job, we had automated testing, and were required to build in test points. Which were then evaluated in the code reviews.

Of course, we were building medical devices, and you tend to be a bit more careful when the FDA is looking over your shoulder. :-) I suspect we were within shouting distance of the 80–90 % number.

But that's only 80–90 % number. If that's what we could do under duress, it's hardly surprising we're lucky to get maybe 30 % in the real world. It's human nature (especially programmer nature) to believe both

I made no mistakes this time, and
I can't afford to take the time for real testing.

Until we figure how to overcome those predilictions, we'll have alpha-level ``releases''.

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